Measuring the relationship between wind stress and sea state in the open ocean in the presence of swell

Wind stress and directional wave spectra were measured during the Grand Banks ERS‐1 SAR wave spectra validation experiment. Swell dominated the wave spectral energy, so that existing relations between wind stress and sea state at sheltered sites were not directly applicable. To test the idea that simple deletion of the swell from the wave spectra would produce a sea state/wind stress relation suitable for general use, a spectral method for separating sea from swell was developed. The resulting open‐ocean wind stress/sea‐state relation does not differ from earlier results without swell, but, as for the swell‐dominated part of the HEXOS (Humidity Exchange Over the Sea) dataset, the statistical significance is low.